Vice President J.D. Vance confused California State Senator Alex Padilla with a man convicted of aiding terrorists in an embarrassing flub at a press conference in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon.
Vance, who is in California amid ICE raid protests and to attend the Republican National Committee’s Summer Retreat, was asked by a reporter about a story published in The New York Times earlier this week on the increasing number of Democrats who’ve been arrested as they protest the Trump administration.
In response, Vance said that he was hoping that “José Padilla would be here to ask a question, but unfortunately I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn’t the theater.”
He continued, “That’s all it is, I think everybody realizes. It’s pure political theater. They want to be captured on camera doing something, they want to be able to go back to their far-left groups and to say, ‘Look, me, I stood up against border enforcement. I stood up against Donald Trump.‘ When all they’re really standing up for is for drug cartels to run rampant over our country and for sex traffickers to continue to traffic little kids into our country.”
Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat from Los Angeles, was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed at a press conference held by Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem last week while trying to ask Noem a question. Jose Padilla is a criminal who was found guilty of conspiring to commit murder and fund terrorism in 2007, and who is currently serving time in a Colorado prison.
When approached by the Daily Beast for comment, Taylor Van Kirk, spokesperson for Vance, said, “He must have mixed up two people who have broken the law.”
The Senator has not been convicted—let alone charged with—any crime, and was released shortly after he was initially detained.
Shortly before Vance’s arrival in his state, Governor Gavin Newsom’s office confirmed to The Washington Post that the Governor had not been officially notified of the VP’s visit, and that the two had no plans to meet—although Newsom would have welcomed a meeting.
A spokesperson for Newsom said in a statement, “We’re always open to working together—which makes it all the more disappointing that the White House chose not to engage with us directly ahead of the Vice President’s fundraising visit.”
Vance’s visit to Los Angeles comes after a tumultuous month marked by immigration raids and anti-ICE protests organized in response, which saw President Donald Trump seize control of California’s National Guard and send 4,000 troops, as well 700 active duty Marines, to quell the protests and protect federal buildings.
